Casinos and certain other business establishments have gaming machines such as, for example only and without limitation, slot machines in which a player can insert coins, pull a handle, and hope for a winning combination of elements on spinning wheels to allow him or her to win money from the machine. These are games of chance that some individuals play for entertainment and others with the hope of receiving winnings.
Casinos typically have cashiers at windows where patrons can obtain coins or tokens to play the gaming machines. A player who runs out of coins or tokens while at a gaming machine must walk away from the machine and find a cashier to get more coins or tokens, and the player may or may not resume playing. Even if wishing to resume, the player may lose his or her place at the previously chosen machine, and some players find this annoying, e.g., because a player feels that a machine was ready for "payoff" or that the player was on a "roll" on that machine but had to discontinue play to go replenish the supply of coins or tokens. These prior systems therefore disrupt the playing of the machine in a manner which is undesirable for the casino and may also be undesirable from the standpoint of the player.
It has been proposed to use house charge cards which differ from general purpose charge cards in that they are issued by a particular gaming establishment and have restriction on use peculiar to that establishment. Such house cards would avoid the need to get coins or tokens from the cashier or to cash in coins and tokens but still would require a player who does not have such a house card to go through the procedures for obtaining one, and would tend to limit a player to the one or more establishments that have already provided that particular player with a house card. In addition, the player would have to comply with the restriction imposed on house card use by the issuing casino, e.g., would have settle the account for each house card according to the rules of the particular establishment that issued the card.